Storage receptacle

ABSTRACT

A receptacle particularly for household or industrial refuse comprises a cabinet having an upper door that swings downwardly and a larger lower door that swings outwardly. A platform in the cabinet at the level of the bottom of the upper door has a central hole surrounded by a downwardly projecting sleeve on which the mouth of a plastic bag can be fitted. A lower vertically movable platform and means for clamping the bag on the sleeve are interconnected so that the bag is clamped when the platform is raised to a position for supporting the bottom of the bag.

Huguenin [451 Mar. 26, 1974 STORAGE RECEPTACLE Jules Huguenin, 14, rue de LEsplanade-57, Scy Chazelles, France [22] Filed: Feb. 22, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 228,004

[76] Inventor:

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Apr. 7, 1971 France 71.12631 [52] U.S.' Cl. 232/43.2, 248/101 [51] Int. Cl B65f l/ [58] Field of Search 232/432, 43.1, 43.3, 44, 232/47, 48, 45, 58; 248/99, 101, 97

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,160,820 11/1915 Baur 232/432 3,179,332 4/1965 Brighton 232/432 1,500,964 7/1924 Starks 248/97 2,170,677 8/1939 Berg 232/432 X 3,204,866 9/1965 Brighton 232/432 3,322,477 /1967 Armijo 232/432 X 1,511,982 /1924 Schilling 232/431 2,634,072 4/1953 Henry 248/101 Primary E.raminerFrancis K. Zugel Attorney, Agent, or Firm--Robert E. Burns; Emmanuel J. Lobato [5 7 ABSTRACT A receptacle particularly for household or industrial refuse comprises a cabinet having an upper door that swings downwardly and a larger lower door that swings outwardly. A platform in the cabinet at the level of the bottom of the upper door has a central hole surrounded by a downwardly projecting sleeve on which the mouth of a plastic bag can be fitted. A lower vertically movable platform and means for clamping the bag on the sleeve are interconnected so that the bag is clamped when the platform is raised to a position for supporting the bottom of the bag.

10 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PATENIEDmes m4 sum u. (If 6 PMENTEDMARZB I974 SHEET 5 [IF 6 STORAGE RECEPTACLE The present invention relates to a receptacle suitable particularly for household, office or industrial waste, but usable also for receiving other material as desired.

In accordance with the invention, a bag of plastic, paper or other suitable material is mounted in a closed cabinet provided with a door which can be easily opened to provide access to the mouth of the bag so that garbage, rubbish, trash, refuse or other material can be deposited in the bag. When the door is closed, the bag is sealed so that odors do not escape into the atmosphere. Then when the bag is filled, it is easily removed from the cabinet and closed with a suitable cord, wire or strand and put out for collection by the garbage and trash collection service.

The receptacle in accordance with the present invention has the following important advantages:

1 It is more sanitary than conventional garbage cans.

2. It requires no more space than a conventional garbage can and moreover provides storage space on top of the cabinet.

3. The cabinet is attractive in appearance and constitutes a good-looking article of furniture.

4. It avoids the unpleasant task of emptying, cleaning and returning garbage cans.

5. It avoids handling large trash cans.

6. It avoids cluttering halls, passageways and sidewalks with trash cans.

7. It avoids the noise incident to emptying metal trash cans by the garbage collection service.

8.'It avoids contamination of the. atmosphere with unpleasant odors of garbage.

The objects and advantages of the receptacle in accordance with the present invention will be more fully understood from the following description of a preferred embodiment shown by way of example in the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a receptacle in accordance with the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a side view of the receptacle with the side removed to show the interior construction,

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 but from the opposite side and showing the parts in position for the insertion or removal of a bag,

FIG. 4 is a front view but with the front of the cabinet removed to show the interior,

FIG. 5 is a front view like FIG. 4 but with parts shown in position for the insertion or removal of a bag,

FIG. 6 is a horizontal section takenapproximately on a line 66 in FIG. 2,

FIG. 7 is a bottom view of a platform for supporting the bottom'of a bag Showing a locking mechanism for holding the platform in raised or in lowered position, and

FIG. 8 is a detail illustration of the operation of the locking mechanism as shown in FIG. 7.

The receptacle shown by way of example in the drawings comprises a cabinet having a top 21, opposite sides 22 and a back 23. The cabinet is also shown as having a closed bottom 24, although the bottom may be left open, if desired, as it rests on the floor which forms a closure for the bottom of the cabinet. The front 25 of the cabinet is provided with an upper door 1 and a lower door 2. The upper door is located near the top of the cabinet and is provided at its bottomwith hinges la so that the door can swing outwardly'at the top as illustrated in FIG. 3. .At opposite sides the door 1 is provided with sector-shaped winged portions lb which are perpendicular to the front portion of the door and extend into the door opening of the cabinet. The upper door 1 can be opened by means of a level 15 which is pivotally mounted near the bottom of the cabinet and provided at its forwardly projected end with a foot pedal 15a. The rear end of the lever 15 is connected by a link 16 with an arm 10 fixed to the door 1 so that downward'pressure on the foot pedal 15a swings the lever 15 in a clockwise direction and moves the link 16 upwardly to swing the door 1 to an open position. The lower door 2 is larger than the upper door 1 and occupies approximately two-thirds to three-fourths of the area of the front of the cabinet. It is hinged at one side by means of hinges 2a so as to swing open about a vertical hinge line disposed at one side of the cabinet. The door is normally held in closed position by friction or by a spring, magnetic or other suitable latch (not shown). A knob or handle 2b is provided at the side opposite the hinges for opening the door.

The cabinet is suitably of sheet metal construction with a metal frame 4 supporting sheet metal panels. A]- ternatively the cabinet may be made of plastic or other suitable material. For household use the dimensions of the cabinet may be approximately 45 cms wide, 45 cms deep and cms high.

An upper horizontal platform 5 is provided in the cabinet at approximately the level of the bottom of the upper door 1. The platform 5 is stationary and extends from one side wall to the other and from the front to the back of the cabinet, thus dividing the cabinet into an upper compartment and a lower compartment which are separated from each other except for a central circular hole 5a in the platform. A cylindrical collar or sleeve 6 extends down from the platform 5 around the hole 50 and fits into the mouth ofa bag 3 which, as will be described more fully below, is held on the sleeve in position to receive material inserted into the bag through the hole 5a of the platform. The cabinet is further provided with a cover 7 which is movable from a closed position in which it closes the hole 5a of the platform 5 and thereby closes the mouth of the bag 3 suspended on the sleeve 6 and in an open position permitting material to be introduced into the bag through the opening 5a. Moreover, the cover 7 is interconnected with the upper door 1 so that it is closed when the door is closed and is automatically opened when the door 1 is opened. As shown by way of example in the drawings, the cover 7 is secured to the lower sides of two parallel bars 7a which extend in a fore-and-aft direction in the cabinet and are hingedly connected to the cabinet at their rear ends so that the cover can be swung from a closed position as shown in FIG. 2 to an open position as shown in FIG. 3. Each of the bars 7a comprises upper and lower parallel strips which are connected together at their front and rear ends but are otherwise spaced apart to provide a slot 7b between them. A shaft or rod 17 extending between the inner comer portions of the side wings 1b of the upper door 1 is slidably received in the slots 7b of the bars 7a so as to interconnect the door and the cover. When the door 1 is swung into an open position as shown in FIG. 3, the rod 16 sliding in the slots 7b of the bars 7a raises the cover to open position. Hence when a downward pressure is applied to the foot pedal 15a near the bottom of the cabinet, the upper door 1 is swung to open position and the cover 7 is raised as shown in FIG. 3 so that material can be inserted through the upper door opening and through the opening 5a into the bag 3. When pressure on the pedal a is released, the upper door 1 and the cover 7 are returned to closed position by gravity acting on the cover and on the side wing portions 1b of the door. However, a return spring may, if desired, be supplied, for example, acting downwardly on the connecting link 16 between the door and the foot pedal.

Means is provided for holding a bag on the downwardly extending sleeve 6 of the platform 5 and for supporting the bottom of the bag. Such means is shown in the drawings as comprising a lower platform 8 which is secured to upwardly extending tubes 9 that are vertically slidable on fixed guide rods 19 extending between the bottom of the cabinet and the upper platform 5 so that the lower platform 8 is movable between an upper position as shown in FIG. 2 and a lower position as shown in FIG. 3. There are four rods 19 and four tubes 9 slidable on them, two at each side of the cabinet. Tension springs 18 acting between the lower platform 8 and the upper platform 5 tend to move the lower platform to its upper position in which it supports the bottom of a bag 3 suspended from the sleeve 6 of the upper platform 5.

The mouth of the bag 3 is secured on the sleeve 6 by means of clamps comprising arcuate flanges l3 engaging the bag at opposite sides and gripping it between the flanges and the sleeve 6. Each of the arcuate flanges I3 is secured to the upper ends of a pair of arms 12, the lower ends of which are rotatably supported by a shaft 26 extending between a pair of the tubes 9 extending up from the lower platform 8. Torsion springs 14 surrounding the shaft 26 have their outer ends anchored while the inner ends act on the arms 12 in a direction to press the associated arcuate flange 13 inwardly toward the sleeve 6. Means for retracting the flanges 13 to release the bag is shown as comprising a stationary bar 27 extending between the two guide rods 19 of a pair above the upper ends of the associated sliding tubes 9. Each of the bars 27 one at each side of the bag is slidably engaged by the associated pair of arms 12 which are of such shape as shown in FIG. 4 that when the lower platform 8 and hence the sliding tubes 9 are in their upper position, a bend 12a in the arms 12 permits the arms to swing inwardly under the bias provided by the springs 14 so as to grip the upper postion ofa bag between the curved flanges l3 and the sleeve 6. When the platform 8 and sliding tubes 9 are moved to their lower position, engagement of the arms 12 with the bars 27 results in swinging the arms outwardly so as to move the flanges 13 away from the sleeve 6 and thereby release the bag.

Means is provided for releasably locking the movable lower platform 8 in its upper and lower positions respectfully. As illustrated in FIGS. 2, 7 and 8 of the drawings, vertically extending locking bars 10 at opposite sides of the platform 8 have notches corresponding to the upper and lower positions of the platform. A pair of locking levers 28 mounted on the bottom of the platform 8 by means of straps 29 are swingable between a locked position in which end portions of the levers engage in notches in the locking bars 10 and an unlocked position in which the locking levers are disengaged from the notches of the locking bars 10. A leaf spring 30 biases the levers 28 to locked position. The levers are swingable to unlocked position against the force of the spring 30 by means of a slide bar 31 which is longitudinally slidably mounted on the bottom of the platform 8 by means of straps 32. One end of the slide bar 31 is pivotally engaged with the inner ends of the locking levers 28 while the other end as shown in FIG. 8 is provided with a down turned flange engageable by a flange on a treadle 11 which is hingedly connected to the front edge of the platform 8. When the treadle 11 is pressed downwardly as shown in FIG. 8, the flange on the treadle engages the slide bar to push the slide bar rearwardly. The inner ends of locking levers 28 are thereby moved rearwardly so that the outer ends move forwardly to disengage them from the locking bars 10.

In order to install a bag 3 in the cabinet, the lowered door 1 is opened and the lower platform 8 is locked in its lower position as shown in FIG. 3. An empty bag is then placed in the cabinet with its mouth fitted around the sleeve 6. In this position of the platform, the clamping flanges 13 are disengaged from the sleeves 6. The lower platform 8 is then released by pressing downwardly on the treadle l1 whereupon it is moved upwardly by the springs 28 to its upper position. At the same time upward movement of the tubes 9 permits the arms 12 to be swung inwardly by the springs 14 so that the arcuate flanges 13 grip the bag on opposite sides and securely clamp it on the sleeve 6. The bag 3 thereupon hangs from the sleeve 6 with its bottom supported by the platform 8 which is now locked in the upper position. After the bag has been filled by material inserted through the upper doorway and the hold 5a in platform 5 as described above, it is removed by pressing downwardly on the treadle 11 and the platform 8 to move the platform to its lower position and simultaneously release the top of the bag from the clamping flanges 13. The filled bag is then removed from the cabinet through the doorway of the lower door 2.

While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been shown in the drawings and is herein particularly described, it will be understood that the invention is in no way limited to the specific construction of this embodiment since the modifications can be made as will be recognized by persons skilled in the art.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. A receptacle comprising an upright cabinet having a front, side walls, a back wall and a top, a fixed upper platform in said cabinet spaced from the top, said upper platform having a central opening and an annular sleeve extending downwardly around said opening to receive the top of a bag fitting on said sleeve and extending down from said platform, means for clamping the top portion of a bag on said sleeve and thereby hold the bag on said sleeve, a lower door in the front of said cabinet below said upper platform providing access to the interior of said cabinet for placing a bag on said sleeve and for subsequently removing it therefrom, an upper door in the front of the cabinet above said upper platform providing access to the interior of said cabinet above the platform for depositing material through the opening in the platform into a bag held on said sleeve, a lower platform movable mounted in the lower portion of said cabinet for movement between a lower position and an upper position in which it supports the bottom of a bag held on said sleeve, and means interconnecting said lower platform and said clamping means to clamp a bag on said sleeve when said lower platform is in. its

upper position, and to release said bag when said lower platform is in its lower position.

2. A receptacle according to claim 1, comprising means for biasing said upper door to closed position.

3. A receptacle according to claim'l, comprising means for biasing said lower platform toward its upper position and means including a foot operable treadle for releasably locking said lower platform in its upper and lower positions respectively.

4. A receptacle according to claim 1, in which said means for clamping a bag on said sleeve comprises arcuate flanges on opposite sides of said sleeve and means for pressing said flanges toward said sleeve to grip the top portion of a bag between said flanges and sleeve.

5. A receptacle according to claim 4, comprising means interconnecting said lower platform and said arcuate flanges to move said flanges toward said sleeve to hold a bag when said lower platform is raised and to move said flanges away from said sleeve to release a bag from said sleeve when said lower platform is lowered.

6. A receptacle according to claim 5, in which said interconnecting means comprises guide rods extending vertically in said cabinet, tubes slidable on said guide rods and having lower ends secured to said lower platform, shafts extending horizontally between a pair of said tubes and rotatable about their longitudinal axes, arms on said shafts and carrying said arcuate flanges respectively, and means for swinging said arms about the axes of said shafts when said tubes with said shafts are moved vertically.

7. A receptacle according to claim 6, comprising springs for biasing said flanges toward said sleeve and springs for biasing said tubes and lower platform upwardly.

8. A receptacle according to claim 1, in which said upper door is hinged at its bottom and is swingable between a closed position in the plane of the front of said cabinet and an open position in which it is inclined upwardly and outwardly.

9. A receptacle according to claim 8, comprising a cover for the opening of said upper platform and means interconnecting said cover and said upper foor to raise the cover when said second door is opened.

10. A receptacle according to claim 9, comprising a lever pivotally mounted near the bottom of said cabinet, a foot treadle on said lever and a rod connecting said lever with said upper door to open said upper door when downward pressure is applied to said treadle. 

1. A receptacle comprising an upright cabinet having a front, side walls, a back wall and a top, a fixed upper platform in said cabinet spaced from the top, said upper platform having a central opening and an annular sleeve extending downwardly around said opening to receive the top of a bag fitting on said sleeve and extending down from said platform, means for clamping the top portion of a bag on said sleeve and thereby hold the bag on said sleeve, a lower door in the front of said cabinet below said upper platform providing access to the interior of said cabinet for placing a bag on said sleeve and for subsequently removing it therefrom, an upper door in the front of the cabinet above said upper platform providing access to the interior of said cabinet above the platform for depositing material through the opening in the platform into a bag held on said sleeve, a lower platform movable mounted in the lower portion of said cabinet for movement between a lower position and an upper position in which it supports the bottom of a bag held on said sleeve, and means interconnecting said lower platform and said clamping means to clamp a bag on said sleeve when said lower platform is in its upper position, and to release said bag when said lower platform is in its lower position.
 2. A receptacle according to claim 1, comprising means for biasing said upper door to closed position.
 3. A receptacle according to claim 1, comprising means for biasing said lower platform toward its upper position and means including a foot operable treadle for releasably locking said lower platform in its upper and lower positions respectively.
 4. A receptacle according to claim 1, in which said means for clamping a bag on said sleeve comprises arcuate flanges on opposite sides of said sleeve and means for pressing said flanges toward said sleeve to grip the top portion of a bag between said flanges And sleeve.
 5. A receptacle according to claim 4, comprising means interconnecting said lower platform and said arcuate flanges to move said flanges toward said sleeve to hold a bag when said lower platform is raised and to move said flanges away from said sleeve to release a bag from said sleeve when said lower platform is lowered.
 6. A receptacle according to claim 5, in which said interconnecting means comprises guide rods extending vertically in said cabinet, tubes slidable on said guide rods and having lower ends secured to said lower platform, shafts extending horizontally between a pair of said tubes and rotatable about their longitudinal axes, arms on said shafts and carrying said arcuate flanges respectively, and means for swinging said arms about the axes of said shafts when said tubes with said shafts are moved vertically.
 7. A receptacle according to claim 6, comprising springs for biasing said flanges toward said sleeve and springs for biasing said tubes and lower platform upwardly.
 8. A receptacle according to claim 1, in which said upper door is hinged at its bottom and is swingable between a closed position in the plane of the front of said cabinet and an open position in which it is inclined upwardly and outwardly.
 9. A receptacle according to claim 8, comprising a cover for the opening of said upper platform and means interconnecting said cover and said upper foor to raise the cover when said second door is opened.
 10. A receptacle according to claim 9, comprising a lever pivotally mounted near the bottom of said cabinet, a foot treadle on said lever and a rod connecting said lever with said upper door to open said upper door when downward pressure is applied to said treadle. 